For those not up to the 18 minutes, here is Diamond's five-point framework for understanding the reasons for the collapse of any society. They sound pretty familiar to me:
- Did people inadvertently destroy parts of the environment they relied on?
- Was there climatic change that they did not respond to?
- Did positive relationships with neighbors alter?
- Did negative relationships with neighbors alter?
- Were the people hindered from perceiving or dealing with their problems by their culture, politics, or economics?
"The big problems facing the world today are not at all things beyond our control. Our biggest threat is not an asteroid about to crash into us, something we can do nothing about. Instead, all of the major threats facing us today are problems entirely of our own making. And since we made the problems we can also solve the problems. It's entirely in our power to deal with these problems.
"...There's a lot that we can do. There's a lot that we don't understand that we need to understand. And there's a lot that we already do understand but aren't doing, that we need to be doing." Jared Diamond on Why Societies Collapse, Time: 18:21
Comments
Diamond has an extraordinary breadth of vision. Although “synthesizers” get a bad rap occasionally, we need more people who can look across disciplinary boundaries to extract meaningful information.
And, I think his first book, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a masterpiece. His second, Collapse, is less impressive; especially his efforts to make Chaco fit the mold of his theory.
Having recently returned from a most interesting trip to Easter Island I think that Diamond’s comments on the collapse of the various groups on Easter Island are most apt. I think that if they don’t carefully controll tourism the collapse could be repeated.
I agree.I think Guns, Germs, Steel is very convincing and well analyzed. Collapse, I feel, was much more for shock value. But I think that Diamond is great at what he does and he is bringing up issues that we really need to address in today’s world.
jh
bodanutrition
Diamond is nothing more or less than genius. However, there are those that would speak differently. In the archaeology world, we sometimes believe that our opinions are fact. Facts and opinions are definitely two different aspects, even with Diamond.